Julia Holter Reimagines Music on Materia

Julia Holter has released Materia, a seven-track album that serves as a companion to her 2024 release, Something in the Room She Moves. This new work delves into the artist's creative evolution by reshaping and re-envisioning previously recorded songs alongside entirely new material.

Materia opens with "The Laugh Is in the Eyes," an intricate piece featuring instrumental flourishes and surreal lyrical themes. The album revisits the title track, "Materia," transforming it into two distinct compositions, "Materia 2" and "Materia 3," showcasing a significant departure from the original version.

Throughout Materia, Holter seems to explore the ongoing nature of artistic creation, questioning when a piece of art is truly finished. While the album offers dazzling moments, some tracks, like the 10-minute "My Twin," can feel unwieldy, suggesting that certain songs were salvaged from earlier stages of development.